Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939) is a Grammy Award-winning American pop/rock singer, Buddhist and occasional actress. She was born of African American, Navajo, and Cherokee ancestry in Nutbush, Tennessee. She lived in Nutbush, Ripley and Brownsville. Tina Turner's dominance in rock and roll throughout the 1980s and 1990s earned her the title "Queen of Rock & Roll".
At age 16, she moved to St. Louis, Missouri and became well known for her high energy performances with The Ike & Tina Turner Revue during the 1960s and 1970s. At the height of the revue's success, Tina Turner became as popular a live performer as other very popular live entertainers during her time such as James Brown.
Tina Turner was a very popular performer before she split with Ike Turner, but it was her solo comeback in the mid-1980s that propelled her to a level where she would become one of the most successful musicians and rock artists of all time, selling more concert tickets than any other female performer in history[citation needed]. Tina Turner is noted for her overpowering stage presence. Her physical trademarks are her long, well-proportioned legs, big hair, and raspy voice.
Throughout her career, Tina Turner has received many awards and honors. Tina has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the 1990s. In addition, she is a member of the St. Louis Walk of Fame. She is the winner of eight Grammy Awards. She is also a Kennedy Center Honoree.
Her long term boyfriend is German record executive Erwin Bach. Turner and Bach live together in Küsnacht, Zürich, Switzerland and Nice, France. She was a mezzo-soprano in her youth, and later developed into an alto.
Anna Mae Bullock (Tina Turner) and her elder sister, Alline Bullock, were abandoned by their father, and temporarily by their mother. They moved out of Nutbush, Tennessee and into St. Louis to reunite with their mother in 1956. In St. Louis, Anna Bullock met Ike Turner, a noted pioneer of rock and roll, and later asked him if she could sing for him. Ike's initial response was no, but after much persistence on Anna's part, Ike eventually gave in.
Young Anna Mae started working with Ike Turner in 1958, He gave her her stage name of Tina Turner. They married in 1960. She began as an occasional vocalist in his show at the age of 18, but within a couple of years, not only did she have a new name, but she was also the spotlight of a popular soul revue led by Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm.
When a singer scheduled to record the famous R&B song, "A Fool In Love", didn't appear, Tina stepped in and recorded the song instead. "A Fool In Love" was a huge R&B hit, and it crossed over and made it into the top 30 of the US pop chart. After this, Ike changed the name of his band to the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, Ike & Tina rose to superstardom. As times and musical styles changed, Tina developed a unique stage persona as a singer-dancer-performer that people very much enjoyed in live concert.
Tina and the Revue's backup singers, The Ikettes, wove intricate and electrifying dance routines into their performances, which influenced many other artists, including Mick Jagger (for whose Rolling Stones 1969 American Tour they opened). Ike and Tina Turner recorded a string of hits in the 1960s and early 1970s, including "A Fool In Love," "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," "I Idolize You," "Nutbush City Limits," and "River Deep - Mountain High" with producer Phil Spector in his Wall of sound style. They also carved out a successful niche for themselves by covering songs made popular by other artists, such as "Come Together", "Honky Tonk Woman" and "I Want to Take You Higher". In fact, their signature hit became their high-energy cover version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1968 "Proud Mary". "Proud Mary" was the duo's greatest commercial successes, peaking at number four in March 1971."Proud Mary" also won a Grammy for"Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Group."
While many of their original recordings failed to chart, by the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue was well known for its live act and electrifying television appearances. Its supporters included The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Sly Stone, Janis Joplin, Cher, James Brown, Ray Charles, Elton John and Elvis Presley. The band were always performing anywhere and everywhere. A one-night gig at a small predomininately black supper club in the South could be followed in the same week by a show at a major venue in Las Vegas or a national TV appearance. Ike acted as the group's manager and lead musical director, calling all the shots and ruling the act (and Tina) with an iron fist. While a fine musician and an early rock-and-roll influence, Ike's control of the Revue's management, recording contracts and performances eventually led to their decline as his drug abuse worsened. This controlling (and often violent) atmosphere caused the musicians and backup singers to come and go frequently, and Tina later reported being isolated and physically abused by Ike on a regular basis for most of their marriage.
Ike and Tina had one child together, born in 1960, although their extended family consisted of two older sons of Ike's from a previous relationship and a son whom Tina bore in 1958 by Raymond Hill, a onetime saxophone player in Ike Turner's band.
[edit] 1970s
By the mid-1970s, Tina Turner's personal life and marriage had began to further deteriorate. Ike's drug use led to increasingly erratic and physically abusive behavior toward Tina. Their act was losing speed, largely due to Ike's refusal to accept outside management of their recording or touring, preferring to keep management costs down. Touring dates began to decline and record sales were down. Despite Tina's successful big-screen appearance in The Who's rock opera, Tommy (in which she played the Acid Queen), Ike placed the blame for the Revue's decline on Tina.
After a final vicious beating right before they were due to appear in Dallas over the Fourth of July, 1976, Tina abruptly decided to leave Ike, fleeing with nothing more than thirty-six cents and a gas-station credit card. She spent the next few months hiding from Ike by staying with various friends and relying on food stamps to exist. Additionally in 1976, Turner covered the Beatles song "Come Together" for the transitory musical documentary All This and World War II.
Tina credits her newfound Buddhist faith with giving her the courage to eventually strike out on her own. Legally, by walking out on Ike in the middle of a tour, she learned she was liable for sizable damages to the tour promoters. Needing to earn a living, Tina decided to strike out on her own as a solo performer, pulling a lounge act together and supplementing her income with TV appearances on shows like The Hollywood Squares, Donny and Marie, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and even the The Brady Bunch Hour.
Tina finalized her divorce in 1978 after 18 years of marriage, accusing Ike of years of severe spousal abuse and rampant drug addiction in her autobiography I, Tina, which was later made into the film What's Love Got to Do with It?. To put the marriage (and Ike) behind her, Tina left the marriage with no money or property, asking for and retaining only the use of the stage name Ike had given her, and assuming responsibility for the huge debts incurred by the cancelled tour, as well as a significant IRS lien.
Solo career
Tina Turner began touring extensively in the US and abroad to pay the bills and released several solo albums in the 1970s, but her career stalled until teaming up in 1982 with BEF for a remake of the Temptations' "Ball of Confusion" and recording a remake of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," which drew the attention of Capitol Records.
While she was largely considered to be unmarketable by the American recording industry, her popularity as a top stage act never faded in Europe and other parts of the world. Capitol signed her to a limited deal with their UK label. She divided her time between appearing at various clubs and smaller venues in the US in order to keep herself in the public eye. She continued to sell out major venues in Europe and other parts of the world despite her problems in the United States.
When Tina Turner's version of "Let's Stay Together" was released in the United Kingdom, it became a huge hit, peaking at number six. This record marked a major turning point in Tina's solo career. Capitol shrewdly released the record in the US, where it made the Top 20 and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance, Female. Given this turn of events, Capitol Records was quickly forced to review their previous assessment of Tina's chartability and put forth the resources to let her record an album.
In 1984, after much anticipation, Tina Turner was able to release her long-awaited solo album Private Dancer. The album was an enormous success and established Tina Turner as a solo artist. Private Dancer had three very popular top ten singles in the United States. The Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit "What's Love Got to Do With It" won Record Of The Year,Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 1985 Grammy Awards. The second single, "Better Be Good To Me", reached number five on the charts and won the 1985 Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy. The album's title track, written by Mark Knopfler, peaked at number seven on the Top 100 in early 1985. Private Dancer got a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.
"What's Love Got to Do With It" was one of the most popular songs of 1984, and remains one of Tina Turner's most loved songs. Private Dancer went on to sell over six million copies in the United States alone and well over 20 million copies worldwide, becoming the most successful album of the 1984-1985 period. It peaked at number three on the US album sales chart and remained at number one for five weeks on the US R&B album sales chart. More than twenty years after its release, Private Dancer is one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Information courtesy of Wikipedia
